On the Border Between Insanity and Truth
by Dizzy Gear
Summary: The Great Hakurei Border is slowly starting to deteriorate. When a human trespasses into Gensokyo via a temporal rip, he will be the key to understand why the Hakurei Border is failing.  OC/?, WIP


**On The Border Between Insanity...and Truth**

A Touhou Fanfic

A/N: An idea just popped into my head and I figured I would at least try to run the gauntlet with it and see where it'll end up leading. This may end up like my Shuffle! Fic where I'm stuck, but at the same time, this might actually help. Plus I want to see if this works. Just like with the Shuffle! Fic, I will be using an original character and from how I have it planned, it will start in the realms of reality. 'Twill be interesting to see how this fleshes out.

Chapter 1

On The Border Between Lost...and Found

It was a rather long and boring day. 'Skald', as his friends have been calling him for years, was staring outside of his window, wondering if it was going to rain. The clouds were rather ominous and rolling in the sky, their darker colors signifying an imminent downpour or nothing at all. He had heard that it was supposed to rain in his area, but he honestly couldn't care less; at this point in time, all he cared for was something to break the monotony of boredom and depression that was set within his mind and soul. Lately, all Skald had felt had been that deep feeling of despair, as if his whole life had no real meaning and that what he was working towards in college was superficial, something that was superimposed upon his mind to think that was what he needed to do.

No, what Skald needed to do was find reason and meaning.

One can't say that he hasn't led a fulfilling life. One can't also say that he hasn't liked where he has gone and what he has done over the years. But! No one can vouch for Skald in how he feels on the greater scale of things like where his life and meaning fits within the society that he has grown to detest, but not hate. It was like staring at a molded piece of bread, knowing it was the last piece of food for a while; it appears very unappealing, but it will have to be endured.

Almost as if Skald's eyes quit blinking, his dark brownish gold orbs suddenly shot up and blinked when the first raindrop hit his window pane. A small smile spread across his face as the sky was slowly ripping open and releasing its torrent of water upon the dried earth. The pitter-patter of the droplets hitting the asphalt, roof, and window panes were now raising in a cacophony of sound as the weather started to get worse. Just then a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky and had killed the power in the area where Skald lived. Thankfully, he was not doing anything at the time the bolt struck whatever it was it struck and the small lamp cut off, as did the metal fan he had blowing in his small room. The bolt looked wonderfully beautiful and deadly, just like the blade of a katana. The sky was darker now, but since it was still mid-day, there was still some light to see without the need of a flashlight for aid.

Looking at the cloud formation, though, made Skald think for a second if it was natural for the puffy masses to be moving in the forms that they were. It looked almost...abnormal, like someone above was stirring the clouds around and making a maelstrom. With another lightning strike that was dangerously close to the house he was staying in, he stepped away from the window and lain down on his bed, staring up into the ceiling. This really was the perfect weather for a nap, he thought. Skald loved this type of weather. It helped calm him down some, but at the same time it put him into a lapse that he despised most.

Bad weather made Skald think and reminisce.

In the past, he always had problems with being left alone with nothing but his mind to keep him company, even with his plethora of collectables scattered throughout his room. Even when he tried to fantasize about a certain character from some series he loved, his accursed mind would always lead right back to why he was where he was and what meaning he had doing what he was doing. It was rather depressive thinking and tended to put him into rather deep slumps for long periods of time. And this time was no exception, either. It was like there was an underlying self-loathing that plagued his mind every time he was given the chance to think about it.

Staring up into the ceiling, Skald's face contorted into a rather deep frown and let out a heavy sigh. Then pulling himself up, he turned to face the adjacent wall where his TV and gaming consoles were. The two consoles were being covered by an old blue polo shirt to keep the dust from accumulating all over and into the machines, or at least slow down the process. Looking at the shirt, the lumps that were usually there were...gone?

"Wait a minute..." Skald spoke up as he stared really hard at the shirt. Then he stood up and pulled the shirt back to see that both consoles were missing. Suddenly perplexed, not even an hour ago he was playing one of them before the bad weather picked up. He scratched the back of his head, his long, thick wavy dark brown hair hanging down instead of being up in its usual ponytail. This did not make any sense. No one else was in the house, since no one other than him ever was. Even more importantly, though, was that Skald had been in the room the whole time. Pulling the shirt back, the empty spaces confirmed his fears as his eyes widened and suddenly started to panic a bit. Those two consoles had been there for him through thick and thin, and now they were gone. The most disturbing thought, though, was that they just suddenly disappeared, as if they ceased to exist.

Just then, another bolt of lightning stretched across the sky and lit everything with it's pale bluish purple luminescence. That bolt was even closer to where Skald was living. It looked as if it struck one of the houses a few quads down from his place. The storm was turning into something very severe. Skald wasn't worried about the weather, though. All of his thoughts were focused on the empty space where his favorite electronics used to be. Dropping to his knees, he was putting the shirt back down and lifting it up, as if thinking it was a magic trick and that if done enough, the consoles would appear again.

Sadly, they didn't. Weeping slightly, Skald just stood up and walked backwards where his bed was and sat down to find himself falling down onto the carpeted floor. Hard. Wincing from the slight pain in his tailbone, he suddenly noticed that his bed was not there anymore. Now he just felt confused.

"What the hell is going on..? Where did my bed go?"

His voice echoed within the walls as he stood up and looked in the spot where his bed used to be. The marks on the carpet were still there from the weight of the bed frame, so Skald was not going insane and thinking he never had a bed in the first place. But if that was the case, why were his items disappearing, and where were they? Just as he was pondering these questions, something caught his eye right above his small TV. It almost looked as if...the air was rippling like water. How was that possible, though? It didn't seem physically feasible but it was happening right before his eyes.

Then, with a sudden tear like a sheet of paper—only silent—the air ripped open like a lightning bolt would tear across the sky and started to open. Within this sudden space between the air was something very dark and purple. It looked amazing and straight from science fiction. With the slit widening slightly, the TV suddenly jumped up into the hole and it sealed again. The space closed up and rippled a little more before stabilizing. Standing there flabbergasted, Skald couldn't manage to think of anything else other than what the hell that was just then.

"I...can't believe I just witnessed that. Why is this happening, though? Or, more like how is that happening? It looks like that hole defied the laws of physics..." Skald closed his eyes as his barely audible voice spoke to no one in particular.

This phenomenon was quite intriguing and deviated from the norm, which excited Skald to no end. At the same time, though, he was even more depressed to know that not only was his consoles and TV gone, but so was his bed that he slept on. It was going to be an uncomfortable night if his items didn't manage to return, if they returned at all.

The rain was getting much harder now. The weather now almost seemed unnatural at how bad it was getting. It was like the heavens were unleashing its fury down to the earth. The sky was actually a bit unnerving to Skald, and the horrible lightning strikes did not help that feeling at all. Just then, another bolt actually managed to strike his house directly, tearing a hole in his roof and going right into the middle of his room. This frightened the man beyond any fear Skald has ever felt before. Throwing himself on the wall behind him, the fact that the lightning bolt wasn't stopping in it's fury striking the floor in his room, he realized that this was definitely unnatural. As that thought crossed his mind, the lightning bolt started to look strangely like the ripple Skald saw before the air split open and sucked in his TV. The air started to waver a bit and look as if a stone was tossed into water to make rings of ripples. Then the area in the bolt started to spread open like a portal of some sort from a game he played before. It looked fascinating, but terrifying at the same time. As the air started to split open again, the dark purple background of the tear in the fabric of reality started to show itself even more. For a fraction of a second, Skald could have sworn he saw an image of something flash, like the silhouette of a person.

While staring at the torn fabric of reality, as Skald thought, there was a sudden pull on his body. Raising an eyebrow, he felt like he was being pulled right into the tear. For a bit, he was able to resist, but soon the pull became more than the man could handle and he felt his bare feet slipping on the carpet. He was trying as hard as he could to resist, but it was futile. Soon he was only a few inches away from the dark purple background and stuck out his right hand to see it disappear into the tear. It looked as if his arm was cut where it stopped. The image was disturbing and it was the last thing Skald saw before being completely overcome with the unknown force and pulled right into the dark world. The lightning bolt stopped and the air closed back up, fading away as if nothing ever happened, with only the hole in the roof and the items that were missing were still missing. Everything else, though, was untouched.

The sound of birds chirping and the sun shining brightly roused Skald from his deep slumber, not immediately aware of where he was. His eyes flittered open in his normally drowsy just-waking-up state he tended to be in after sleeping really well. The sun was too bright, he thought, as he covered his eyes a bit. Then a thought crossed his mind. Sun? Birds chirping? Cold, hard ground?

Quickly glancing around, the man noticed that he was in a forest-like setting, but without as many trees as he'd expect. Getting to his feet, Skald closed his eyes and managed to recall what had happened. He remembered the horrible storm and how a lightning bolt went through his roof and managed to tear a hole in reality and suck him in. This felt oddly like a dream, but his tail-bone was hurting, as if it was agitated from yet another fall. Gazing up into the clear blue sky, Skald let out a soft sigh and started rubbing his rear end.

"Man, whatever it was that happened, it must have dropped me pretty damn hard. Thankfully I've been through worse pain," he said to himself. Inhaling the crisp, clean air, the man felt more energetic than usual.

The sounds of something coming made Skald look about in the direction of the sounds. It sounded like two sets of feet were pattering on the forest floor, breaking a few twigs. Then their voices could be heard. Both sounded quite feminine, though one sounded quite a bit younger.

"Oi~ Oi~ Reimu~ Look! I told you that something fell over here!" This one sounded quite energetic and younger.

"Hai, hai...I see. Can I go back now?" This one sounded a bit older and a lot less enthusiastic to whatever the first girl was excited about.

"Hmph! Then I won't show you anything I find here!" She sounded quite displeased at the other's remark.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm sure someone will be coming anytime to pay their offerings to the shrine," the other girl spoke, sounding completely disinterested.

Panicking a little, Skald looked about and then suddenly found one of his consoles, completely shattered on the ground.

"MY GAME CONSOLE!" Skald yelled out and suddenly ran up to the pile of plastic and metal, despair and horror written all over his face. Was it even fixable with this amount of damage? He didn't know, but he would be willing to try once he got back home...wherever home was. From the shock of his beloved system, he forgot about the two feminine creatures coming his way and didn't even realize they were very near him.

"...Did you hear something, Reimu?" This girl sounded rather puzzled at the sudden yell.

"No, I though you were the one that was playing a joke." This girl started to sound less disinterested and more curious about the voice.

"If it wasn't you...then who was it?" The first sounded slightly concerned.

Both girls' feet were clad in soft leather shoes as they reached where Skald was, him clutching what remained of his game system. The shorter girl looked up to the taller one, her tawny brown eyes gazing into the other's darker brownish yellow orbs. Then she looked over at the man huddled to the ground and cocked her head to the side, her horns tilting and hitting the other in the side.

"O-oi! Suika, you should be careful of your horns. That hurt," Reimu said, frowning down at Suika before looking over at the man. Both girls were staring at him and his strange clothing. The two of them never saw the type of material of shorts he was wearing. His black t-shirt wasn't too uncommon, but the way his clothes looked to be made, it was definitely not anything they were familiar with.

Realizing that there were voices behind him, Skald stood up, clutching part of the system's cd drive in his hands and looked towards them. Never had his eyes fallen upon ladies of such fine beauty before. But the beauty was short-lived as he noticed that the shorter one had rather long horns protruding from the sides of her head, had chains hanging from armlets on her wrists, and the taller one was wearing a rather unique garb and shoulderless sleeves on her arms. Raising an eyebrow, he was thoroughly confused now.

"I must've hit my head pretty hard. Now I'm seeing beautiful and strange girls. One even has horns. Hehehehe..." Skald started laughing a bit, showing early signs of insanity setting in.

Both girls looked at the guy rather strangely and saw that he was clutching something in his hands they had never seen before. Reimu was rather angry from Skald's remark about her being strange. She couldn't care less about Suika, though, because she was the strange one. But out of all three of them, Skald was the strangest in her eyes. Before she could ask her question, Suika got to it before her.

The little girl dashed right up the the rather disgruntled man and was staring at what he was holding. "Ohhhh~~ What is that~, what is that~~? Is that some kind of magical device Rinnosuke found and gave to you~?" She looked right into Skald's eyes and saw right away that something was not right with him.

Holding onto his ruined console, Skald looked straight into the little Suika's eyes, almost completely devoid of emotion. He didn't even hear what she said. The girl waved her hand in front of his eyes and called to him, but to no avail. It seemed that his brain went into meltdown and his eyes rolled into the back of his head and passed right out, falling back.

Both girls gasped and ran up to him and started to panic a bit.

"W-w-w-what just happpened? Did you do anything Suika?"

"No~ I didn't! I just tried to get his attention, then he just passed out." Suika sounded rather concerned for the young man.

"Well, for now, let's take him to the shrine. He doesn't look like he's from around here, so he might be in shock," Reimu said, looking a little worried.

Suika, being an Oni, picked up Skald rather easily but seemed a bit surprised at how much trouble she had. Once she had his body over her right shoulder, the two girls headed back to the shrine, which was just a few hundred yards away from where Skald and his stuff had fallen.

The shrine looked rather beat up and run down. It looked almost pathetic with bits and pieces of the roof hanging down and some of the shingles missing. The large archway in front of the shrine was covered in moss and vines so it must be quite old indeed. Reimu walked past the offertory box and stopped to look in it, sighing at the result, and opened up the shrine so that Suika could place the fallen man down in one of the spare futons.

Reimu really didn't know what she was doing, helping out a complete stranger like this and even setting out a futon for him, but something about the man did not seem right and she wanted to know if he had anything to do with the strange events happening lately. Once she laid the futon out in the middle of the room, Suika placed him down and fell onto her butt beside Skald, panting slightly. Reimu raised an eyebrow at the Oni, who she had always known to be stupidly strong.

"What's wrong, Suika? Why are you suddenly winded?"

Suika looked up at Reimu, then down at the pale face of Skald, seeing his youthful features behind the slight facial hair. "I don't know...As soon as I picked him up, it felt like it took all of my strength to keep him held up. Something is definitely very strange about this person." Gazing at his long hair, her eyes trailed down to the piece of machinery that was in his hands. "I wonder what that is that he's holding so dearly there~." Suika's curiosity never ceased to amaze the shrine maiden.

"You can ask him when he wakes up. I'm going to wait outside. The sun is nice and bright and the wind started to pick up again. If you need me, I'll be lying on the front porch," Reimu said matter-of-factly, opening up the sliding door and closing it behind her, leaving the oni alone with the unconscious guy. She pouted her lips and looked a little pissed at Reimu's lack of curiosity. But then her eyes trailed right back to Skald and couldn't help but think that he was quite odd, even by her standards.

Reaching out with her right hand, the chain that was connected to her left wrist jingled a bit and the triangle rock that was at the end dragged on the floor slightly. Her soft fingers reached up to touch the man's face and gently touch his lips. For some curious reason, Suika seemed to fancy the man as he was sleeping. The fingers touched Skald's lips and she felt how soft they were. Then her fingers rubbed his chin a bit and she was surprised at how rough it felt compared to her chin. Unable to resist the temptation, the oni leaned forward to look at the man's features more closely and her breath started to pick up in pace, her face flushing slightly. She was getting the sudden urge to kiss those lips of his. Leaning forward and down, her lips finally caressed his and noticed the difference in size between their lips. The kiss she initiated lingered a little longer than she anticipated and pulled back, touching her lips with her left fingers. She continued to sit beside Skald in the seiza position.

No more than a minute or two after Sukia kissed him did Skald's eyes flutter open again the second time today and bolt up suddenly, keeping a death hold on his console. "Who! What!" He was frantically looking about and then saw the short girl with horns again and suddenly went into panic mode, scooting back and away from the oni.

"Who are you, and where am I?" Skald sounded a little more calm, but the frantic fear was still seen in his eyes as he stared at the inhumanly cute girl.

Suika tilted her head to the side like she did before. Seems it was a trademark she had when some things confused her. "What do you mean? You don't even know you are in Gensokyo? And I'm Suika. Suika Ibuki. You can call me Suika~!" She leaned forward suddenly and her eyes went bright with curiosity and childish wonder as she was staring at his chest, where his console was being clung to. "Nee~ nee~ What is that you are holding? I've never seen anything like that before."

Skald noticed that this girl named Suika was scooting closer to him and he kind of reacted by scooting back a bit more, also. This didn't deter the girl and for almost a minute, there was a match to see who could get farthest. That was, until his back hit the back side of the shrine and had nowhere else to go. Soon the oni was staring at him with sparkling eyes and asked him her question again. Letting out a sigh, he figured he'd might as well play along.

"This is what was called a video game console, or system. Now, though, it's just trash unless I can fix it," he said, rather sadly.

Suika looked into the man's eyes and showed him a rather disappointing frown. "You mean it won't work?"

Skald shook his head. "No, unfortunately not. I don't have a means to fix it."

Then, as if a sledgehammer hit him in the back of the head, Skald suddenly realized what the girl said before when he asked where he was. Bolting forward, he startled Suika by how close he suddenly was to her face. His eyes, though, showed that he was confused and frantic again. "Wait, wait...You said we were in...Gensokyo? Where is this 'Gensokyo' place? I've never heard of such a name before."

Now it was Suika's turn to be confused. "You've...never heard of Gensokyo before..? How could that be? Where did you come from?" Her question was asked very quizzically.

Skald told her the name and a general description of the place and it only seemed to be confusing the girl even more. "I've never head of such a place. What is this 'electric power' you talk of, though? Is it like a magic spell that uses lightning?" The way Suika looked when her puzzled face was seen made Skald feel really nervous about being near someone that was almost too damn cute. But at the same time, he felt a sickening and dark feeling start to well up inside of him. If she had never heard of electrical power, something was very wrong here. It was like he was thrown back in time.

"Wait, what year is it here?" Skald asked, hoping that he would at least get a general idea of the timeline here. Sadly, Suika looked at him with a bit of confusion, but not in the way he expected.

"Umm...year? I kind of stopped counting centuries ago." The girl stated, letting out a small giggle and took the gourd off her side and popped open the top to take a large drink of whatever it was inside it. After what seemed like a very long time—which was only a few seconds—she finally stopped and let out a very happy sigh. "Sake always tastes best in the morning."

Skald couldn't believe what the girl said. He could have sworn that she looked no older than twelve or thirteen, but if what she said was true, she was older than most humans could live for by many times. Letting out a heavy sigh, he kind of slumped back and leaned against the wall, feeling defeated and wondering what was going to happen to him. Then he started to mumble to himself. "If what this girl says is true, then I'm probably not in the same reality as I was before. Or would this be a parallel dimension? Either way, looks like I'm stuck here for now."

Suika noticed that the man was talking to himself and inquired as to what he was saying. Then she was startled by him suddenly standing up, still holding the console piece to his chest but not nearly as hard as before. Then he started walking to the door on the opposite side. Suika quickly got up and stumbled to follow him.

"Oi~ oi~~ Where are you going?" She was a curious one. Skald looked at her and pointed in the direction he was found.

"I'm going to go check out the area where I fell from. I want to see a few things before I go." It was hard to believe, but that lightning bolt that tore the reality open back in his house may have been a type of portal here. If that was the case, then where he fell, he might be able to see if something could be done to get back.

"I'll follow you!" Suika hasn't been this excited and curious for a long time and she wasn't about to let the opportunity pass. Skald quickly looked down and realized how short Suika really was. Then he smiled a little and let out a soft sigh.

"So be it. It won't be anything exciting. I just want to see how the air looks."

Right after Skald said that, a tear across the sky happened and Reimu quickly called for Suika again. "Suika! Get out here quick! It's happening again!"

Suika looked at Skald, who had a gut feeling of what it was, and opened the door quickly to see part of the sky tear right and showing the dark purple background that just seemed a little creepy. This startled Skald. "OH! That's what I saw in my room before everything went black!"

Both the shrine maiden and the oni looked at the man with startled, puzzling expressions. But just as they were about to ask their questions, something rather large fell out of the sky and the tear disappeared again. Something about what just fell seemed rather familiar to Skald and he quickly started running towards the area of interest. Both Reimu and Suika were following in suit, looking as if they were gliding across the ground, quickly catching up with Skald. At this point, he wasn't surprised by the physics-defying abilities they were showing and stopped to see that part of his room from his house was scattered all over the ground.

"My room!" The man yelled out, almost like he was in pain. Quickly digging into the mass, he pushed away pieces of wood from the ceiling and saw that some of his books were scattered all over the floor. Some had pieces of wood through them while other had shards of glass shoved through and through. Putting the console down beside the wreckage, Skald picked up his favorite book and was immensely sad. The two girls quickly noticed this and wondered what was going on. Before they had a chance to ask, the man answered.

"This is most of my room from back home. There was a horrible lightning storm that seemed unnatural, damn near turning day into night. A huge bolt struck my house and a tear that appeared in the sky just moments ago appeared in front of me at that time. I got sucked in and next I knew, I was lying on the ground here. So this is how I fell. No wonder my ass still hurts," Skald said, rather comically and rubbed his rear end with his let hand.

"This usually does not happen. I know where Rinnosuke is, it happens once every now and then, but this kind of frequency here at the Hakurei Shrine is very odd," Reimu stated, rather amazed that the tears in the Hakurei Border could pull a human from the outside world. "I've never seen one pull a human out of their world into ours. Rinnosuke and Marisa would have a field day with this if they knew, but I think someone even more important needs to explain this." Reimu sounded rather angry and sounded like she was calling to someone that was there.

"Ohoho~~ If I could explain this, I would have done so already." The sound of an older woman echoed in the small forest and Skald looked to see where it came from. He couldn't pinpoint the source, but noticed a tear opening up again in the air beside him and out crawled a woman of immense beauty and class. Her interesting hat covered the top of her head as her beautiful blonde hair flowed right out and down her shoulders with two small locks tied up with bows that hung in front of her shoulders. The way she popped out of the air scared the hell out of Skald and he yelled out before stumbling down and landed on his butt again with his right hand landing on a large glass shard, piercing the palm of his hand a bit.

"Oya, oya...I didn't mean to scare you there, young one. So you're the one that I felt disturb the air in Gensokyo." Yukari's deep purple eyes felt as if they pierced right through Skald as he stood up and looked at the rather large hole in the palm of his hand, shrugging it off as a minor flesh would even though blood was dripping rather quickly from his fingers.

"Disturbance? You mean a disturbance like I should not have come here, even under natural circumstances?"

Yukari looked at him with a raised eyebrow and leaned forward from the hole in the air, placing her face in her hands as her elbows were propped up by only the air under her. "You're quite a sharp one. What is your name, young one? You've piqued my curiosity..." Her voice was rather sultry for someone who was just asking his name, and Skald couldn't help but feel more than a little nervous as she asked.

Suika was also quite interested in the man's name and looked up at him with large, bright eyes. "Name~ name~ name~!"

Letting out a a small laugh from the sight of the energetic girl with horns, Skald looked over at the older woman. "My name, eh? Everyone has always referred to me as 'Skald' so that kind of stuck. It would be rather pointless to say anything more." There was a hint of sadness in his voice, like he was reminded of something that he couldn't get rid of. Yukari took the hint, as did Suika. Reimu, on the other hand, looked as if she couldn't have cared less about the man's name unless he was going to repay her for the help the shrine maiden provided.

Yukari let out a rather interesting 'hmm...' before grinning at Suika and looking back into the man's more yellowish eyes. "That's a rather peculiar name—Skald. This definitely makes things much more interesting now than sleeping. Because of your sudden entrance into Gensokyo, the whole realm has been stirred and all forms of youkai, fairies, and ghosts are inquiring as to what just happened. I expect if you leave the shrine, you may encounter some sort of trouble sooner or later. Oh, speak of the devil, literally." Yukari's face suddenly lit up with humor as she felt the presence of two more people coming closer.

Skald almost couldn't keep up with what this woman was saying, and was even more confused by what she meant in her last sentence. He's never had much of a problem fighting before, but if this world was as fantastic and strange as he was seeing and hearing, his way of fighting may not be very effective.

Reimu frowned a bit and looked into the sky. "What are THEY doing here?" She was starting to get even more irritated by all the company that was flocking to the shrine that she knew were not going to donate any money. Even Suika was rather curious to know what the two people coming wanted. Then all three girls looked directly at Skald, realizing that he really did give off a rather odd aura.

Before they could inquire and study the man further, though, two more women showed up from above and landed right on top of the pile of Skald's room. Frowning severely, he wasn't given a chance to say anything before a knife was thrown at him. With his reaction timing and how stimulated his body had been since he got to Gensokyo, Skald caught the blade with the tips of his index and middle fingers on his left hand. Then, with sudden anger, he quickly threw it right back at the source with an ungodly source of strength and speed. The owner of the knife barely had time to slow the knife down before it had hit her right in the middle of the forehead.

"W-what the hell was that!" Even with how composed the maid-like girl seemed, she was not expecting that to happen and was totally thrown off. Even the girl standing beside the maid, with her...devilish wings...on her...back...wait, what? The short lady that wore a pale red dress and a similar hat as the one lying in the slit in the air seemed very odd, even compared to Suika. This lady had rather large wings coming from the small of her back and smiled, revealing two really sharp-looking fangs. When she spoke, Skald could tell that the lady was really refined, even if she looked younger than the maid-like woman beside her.

"Ho hoo. Seems we got a feisty one here, Sakuya. No wonder his aura gives off strange vibes; for him to catch you off-guard with your own knife is very intriguing and unnatural. But to see that even Yukari is here means that something is wrong with the Hakurei Border, am I not wrong?" The lady's blood red eyes narrowed and looked directly at Yukari, the one inside the hole. Before she had a chance to say something, Skald yelled out to the two new women.

"HEY! Get the hell off my stuff before I force you off them!" He clenched his fists, shoving the shard of glass that was in his hand deeper into his palm and causing even more blood to leak out. Remilia looked at the man, rather amused by his spunk, but then started to feel a sharp pang of hunger for the ichor dripping from his hand. Never had she felt the strong tugging sensation to feed as hard as she just had. There was something about his blood that heated up her body all over. She had to have a taste. The maid noticed the lady's sudden change in demeanor and realized that the guy was in a bit of danger.

Noticing that neither girls were moving, Skald decided to make the first move and jumped forward, feeling unusually faster than before and jumped into the air to throw a right hook at the young lady. Stimulated by how close the blood source was getting, it was hard for Remilia to stay focused and was suddenly picked up by her maid and jumped off the pile, just barely dodging the swing. The blood that slung from his fist, though, splattered a little on the two's faces. With the sensation of blood on Remilia's face, the young lady started to wipe off a bit with her index finger and suck on it.

Skald was happy that they finally got off his stuff and calmed down a bit, noticing that the young lady in the arms of the maid was sucking her finger rather...suggestively. Feeling a little embarrassed by Remilia's sudden lapse in composure, he turned his attention to more of his stuff. Digging out some more of his books with his left hand, even finding a college textbook, most looked to be nearly ruined and nigh unusable. Letting out a sigh, he got back to his feet and looked at his right hand, realizing that he had the shard of glass in it the whole time. He quickly pulled it out, not even wincing from the pain that shot through his arm.

Everyone looked at him rather oddly, like he was the odd one out of all them. Blinking, Skald looked at them all. "What? It's just a minor scratch. Not like I haven't been through worse."

Yukari raised her eyebrow again. This boy was far more interesting than she could have ever thought possible. Leaning forward a little bit further, more of her body could be seen. Skald realized that she was actually wearing a rather pretty white dress with a purple cloth draping down the front in a similar design that he had seen before in some traditional Chinese clothing, but very different at the same time.

"Skald-kun." She called his name out, almost playfully. "You are a very intriguing young man. Of all the humans I've ever seen in all these centuries in the Hakurei Border, I've never come across one as unique as you."

Suika smiled and nodded her head energetically. "Indeed, indeed! He's even hard to carry around for me. I've never felt someone like him before. It was like he was draining all my energy."

Now it was Reimu's turn to actually give a damn and looked at Suika with a rather surprised face. "So that was why you seemed so winded when you brought him to the shrine?" Reimu sounded rather puzzled and Suika nodded, looking just as puzzled.

"That may also explain why Lady Remilia felt the sudden urge to feed on this young man, even though she just recently had breakfast and could keep her urges in control," the maid spoke up this time and looked down at the lady who was getting every last drop of blood off her and her maid's face with her fingers. "In all my years I've been with Lady Remilia, I've never seen her like this." Sakuya sounded a little worried.

Yukari eyed the man again. "We may have to keep a special eye out on you. Even though you look extremely capable of fending for yourself, I think it would not be wise to travel alone, that's for sure. I'll have to get Ran to look into this matter further."

Skald's mind was almost spinning now and not from the blood loss. Everything that was happening here was confusing him more and more. He suddenly lost balance and stumbled to the ground with Suika barely grabbing him under his arms before he fell down completely. "Hey, hey! You need to be careful." The childish Suika was actually acting rather mature for herself and Reimu noticed this was very uncharacteristic. Then the shrine maiden was suddenly reminded of a similar incident when Suika last drank heavily.

Yukari, and even Sakuya noticed this rather interesting development. The older lady spoke up first, though. "It seems strange things really are happening around here. I would really like to take Skald with me and study him a bit more to understand why there is this strange aura around him."

Suika frowned and looked up to Yukari and held Skald rather possessively. "No! I found him first. He's very interesting. I bet we could have drinking parties and he wouldn't mind!" Everyone wondered if her having him as a drinking partner was the real reason for her sudden possession, considering she had another oni to drink with her whenever Yuugi had the time. But Yukari wasn't about to enter into a battle of possession and shrugged her shoulders, showing slight indifference but was a little put off considering the intrigues that surrounded Skald.

"Hai, hai, okay. I still see your childishness hasn't changed at all. Just be wary; he isn't from Gensokyo, nor is he a normal human." And with that, Yukari slipped back into the tear she created and smiled at Skald. "We will meet again. There is actually a lot I want to ask, but I need to research first. Until then, Skald, be careful." There was a playfully sharp note of jealousy at the end of her statement. She slid inside and disappeared, the tearing disappearing along with her.

Sakuya pondered what she witnessed and went 'hmm...' before Remilia came back from her lapse in judgment. Blushing a bit more than usual from her embarrassing act, the lady jumped out of the maid's arms and started walking towards Suika, holding the still staggered Skald in her hands. Her red eyes narrowed as she stared directly at the man.

Skald didn't know what this devilish lady was up to, but it wasn't like he was able to see clearly now. He was getting extremely dizzy and was going a little pale in the face and Remilia noticed this. "You should really take care of that wound before you die of blood loss." The lady shivered a bit at the mentioning of his blood again and the smell hit her senses pretty hard, walking back and into the arms of her maid.

"I think we should go for now, m'lady. Now that we know the source of the odd disturbance, we should leave." Sakuya sounded a little worried for her master and Remilia noticed it.

"Okay." The devil lady turned towards the shrine maiden and the oni girl. "It seems that you have picked up a rather strange stray cat. Let's hope you don't get too attached to him before something terrible happens." Letting out a slightly shrill laughter, Remilia jumped into the air and started flying off, with Sakuya close behind.

Reimu looked rather put off from the sudden realization that she had to take care of yet another person. At least he wasn't a drunk, she thought as she looked down at Suika, surprised by the expression on the girl's face. The oni really was worried about this human. The way her tawny brown eyes was staring into the slightly glazed eyes of Skald's showed that something was happening. Sighing softly, she pat the oni on the back.

"Let's go. We need to treat his wound before he loses complete consciousness."

Suika started to get up, but then realized that she couldn't pick Skald up. "Ara? Ara, ara? Reimu, Reimu...I can't seem to pick him up anymore." The young girl blinked as the shrine maiden looked surprised.

"What do you mean? You're supposed to be stupidly strong. Let me help, then." As Reimu tried to help pick Skald up, there was a sudden feeling of weakness that shot through her body and she felt strangely drained. Was that was Suika was feeling, too? Standing back, she looked at the man and wondered just what the hell was up with him.

After a few minutes, both were able to finally pick Skald up and bring him to the shrine. Reimu used a part of the man's t-shirt ripped from his left sleeve to help stop the bleeding a bit until she could pull out a first aid kit. Even though she wasn't ever motivated by anything she didn't see she could benefit from, she also just couldn't leave the man alone and decided to treat him. Suika was really bad at treating people plus she had no first aid experience at all, so it was all left up to the shrine maiden.

Once she bandaged up his hand, the color in Skald's face started to come back a little. He was placed inside the shrine again in the spare futon from before and told Suika to watch over him as she went out to go see Eirin to make sure Skald would be alright. The oni sat beside the man again, a large frown upon her face and caressing his cheek with her right hand, wondering why she suddenly felt this way for someone else. Especially a human. Was it his oddity? How he arrived? She did not know, but one thing she was certain about, he was growing on her and she wanted to have fun with him.

Feeling a bit tired, Suika leaned forward and laid her arms on his chest, crossing them as she put her forehead there. Her horns were in the way so she couldn't nuzzle his chest with her cheek, but she didn't mind. She felt a wave of tiredness hit her and soon she fell asleep upon Skald's chest as he was resting, also.


End file.
